


Under the Dead Moonlight

by seimaisin



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure, Deep Roads, F/M, Grey Wardens, Hurt/Comfort, Magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-02
Updated: 2014-05-03
Packaged: 2018-01-21 14:23:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1553540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seimaisin/pseuds/seimaisin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bethany Hawke is on a Deep Roads mission when a cave-in devastates her party. She is rescued by a trio of Wardens from Amaranthine, whose mission is much more dangerous than anything she's encountered since the ill-fated adventure that brought her to the Wardens in the first place. Without options, she must accompany Nathaniel, Oghren, and Sigrun to the farthest reaches of the Deep Roads, where spiders and hurlocks may be the least of their problems.</p>
<p>The Deep Roads are an unforgiving place. For Bethany Hawke, they're the place she died - and perhaps the place she learns to live again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title is adapted from "Harder Than Stone" by City and Colour. 
> 
> Thanks go to cherith and garafthel for allowing me to brainstorm all over them.

When the rocks began to fall from above, Bethany realized she didn't actually want to die.

That wasn't entirely true. She began to realize it several minutes earlier, when one of her Warden companions stopped and frowned. "Did you hear that?" he asked. 

Everyone else, including Bethany, shrugged. They could hear a lot of things in the Deep Roads - skittering insects, pebbles being kicked around every time they took a step. On a bad day, they could hear the distinctive whines, clicks, and hisses that heralded either a herd of deepstalkers or a family of giant spiders. (And then there were darkspawn. Always darkspawn.) But, when she stopped and listened for something new, Bethany couldn't pick anything out. "What did you hear?"

"I don't know," he said, his blade in his hand. "Something. This doesn't feel right ..."

He opened his mouth to say more, but neither his words nor his blade mattered a moment later. Bethany suddenly heard a cracking noise loud enough to make her put her hands over her ears. Her fellow Warden - he of the excellent hearing - turned, and then he was gone, buried by a mound of rocks and debris from above. 

"Cave in!" someone else yelled unnecessarily. And then chaos.

A boulder twice her size crashed down into the cavern next to Bethany, and her rediscovered survival instinct kicked in – she ran back toward the open cavern they'd just walked through. She could feel dust and tiny pebbles coating her hair, sliding down into her eyes until she could barely see. Someone screamed behind her; Bethany didn't stop. Maybe she'd feel bad about that later, she thought. Later, when she will still alive to regret things.

To think, when she'd entered the Deep Roads this time - and every time, if she was honest with herself - Bethany had secretly hoped the darkspawn would kill her. A blade through the heart would almost be merciful, she thought, as long as she could take her killer with her. It would silence the song in her head. It would save her from another group of strangers, another trip into places no human should have to venture. She'd actually been dead for years, she figured, and she walked purely because of Warden sorcery.

But facing certain death exposed all that for the self-indulgent nonsense it was. Death sounded like the howls behind her - voices she once recognized, voices she now refused to acknowledge. She darted to her left, side-stepping an avalanche of rock. The corridor in front of her was clear - no falling rocks, nothing collapsed. If she could just make it ten more steps, she could make it. She could survive.

Her foot slipped. Bethany fell forward and landed on her knees, hard enough to shake her entire body. “No,” she moaned, reaching towards the open cavern corridor.

There was a blinding flash of pain, and then Bethany felt nothing at all.

*

 

They were a nearly a week into the Deep Roads when they heard the booming crash. "Tunnel collapse," Oghren said.

Sigrun nodded. "They happen."

"Hopefully not in the direction we need to go in?" Nathaniel asked.

Both dwarves stopped and listened for a moment. "Maybe,” said Sigrun. “It’s close enough that it sounds like it could have come from three different directions.” 

“If we’re lucky,” Nathaniel said, “it killed a few darkspawn.”

“Lucky?” Oghren snorted. “If we were lucky, we wouldn’t even be here.” Neither of his companions could find a reason to argue the point.

Nathaniel had been relatively lucky thus far in his Warden career. Before now, his trips to the Deep Roads had been few, and relatively brief. He’d done some exploring of the areas around Vigil’s Keep and Amaranthine, and every so often a new tunnel opened up somewhere underneath Ferelden, which required Warden investigation. This trip would be the longest period he’d ever spent underground, all for a possibly hopeless task. “Damn Bhelen anyway,” he muttered as they turned down another tunnel.

“That’s my line,” Oghren said, poking Nathaniel with the hilt of his sword.

“Hush, you two,” Sigrun said, stopping briefly. “I think the collapse is actually in this direction.”

“Of course it is,” Oghren said. “Because that means we’ll have to take the long way around to Caridin’s Cross.” 

“Forget I said anything about luck.” Nathaniel looked down at Sigrun. “Should we turn around now?”

She thought for a moment. “No, let’s go a little farther. We might be able to pick our way around the debris, depending on where it’s at.” 

She didn’t sound optimistic, though, and before too long Nathaniel could see why for himself. The collapse had happened in one of the wider portions of the tunnels - an area that was too small to be a cavern in and of itself, but was large enough to have possibly served as an antechamber to the large cavern they had just walked through. The entire ceiling had fallen, it seemed. Rocks piled up higher than Nathaniel’s head, in all different shapes and sizes. They couldn’t remove them, he noted, not without losing far more time than they could afford. It would be a delicate job; move the wrong stone, just one pebble, and the entire thing could come crashing down around them. He heard Oghren curse behind him. “I assume you know an alternate route to Caridin’s Cross?” Nathaniel asked.

“Yeah.” Oghren sheathed his sword on his back and sighed. “It’s a stone-cursed maze, and it’ll cost us at least three more days, but we can make it around the other side. That is, if the spiders don’t get us.”

“We can handle spiders,” Sigrun said. “As long as there are no hurlock emissaries waiting for us, I’m good.”

“Shut up, woman, do you want to jinx us?” Oghren scowled at her.

The conversation faded into the background, as Nathaniel crouched down to get a closer look at the bottom of the rock pile. Near the side wall, something looked out of place - he could see a tiny patch of paler color, something shaped too oddly to be a rock. He scooted closer, frowning, and gingerly brushed the outside layer of pebbles and dust away to get a closer look. He couldn’t be sure, but the patch looked like it might be … skin? “Hey,” he said loudly, causing silence behind him. “I think there might be someone under here.”

He felt two bodies bending down behind him. “Are you sure?” Sigrun asked.

“No, but I won’t be sure until we clear some of these rocks away.”

“It might start falling again,” Sigrun pointed out. “And anyone under there is probably dead.”

“They might not be. We should find out.” Nathaniel stood and surveyed the wreckage from above. The body - the potential body - was thankfully in an area where the rocks were shallow. “There’s not enough here to crush a person, if they were lucky.” 

“Haven’t we determined that our luck sucks?” Oghren grumbled. But, he moved immediately to the wall and looked at the rock pile. “Look, there’s a bigger rock over here that probably won’t shift anything. Come on, Howe, help me move it.” 

They had an awkward angle, but after a few adjustments, Oghren and Nathaniel were able to lift the large rock without causing more than a dust storm that caused all three Wardens to cough violently. When Nathaniel could breath again, he wiped the dust from his eyes and looked down. Blue and silver armor greeted him, along with a tangled mess of dark hair. Sigrun immediately crouched close to the unknown Warden. “I can see her breathing,” she said, after a moment. “She’s alive!”

“That rock was wedged up against the wall, with some room underneath,” Nathaniel said. “It probably sheltered her against the worst of it.”

“She probably has the luck we missed,” Oghren said.

Nathaniel nodded. “She’s got some luck, that’s for sure.” 

With almost exaggerated care, they cleared enough of the rocks to allow them to slide the woman’s body out from underneath the collapse. When they turned her over, Nathaniel could see a variety of cuts and bruises on her face and neck. But, as Sigrun had noted, her chest still rose and fell in a shallow, but regular manner. “We should go back to the cavern and set up camp,” he said. “She’s going to hurt when she wakes up.”

“If she wakes up,” Oghren muttered. 

“She’s got luck enough to survive the collapse. Maker willing, she’ll wake again and be fine.” 

As Nathaniel slung the unconscious woman into his arms, he looked back at the pile of rocks and said a small prayer that no one else was buried underneath. But, his rational mind told him, Wardens rarely traveled the Deep Roads alone. Chances were good that more Wardens lurked under the rocks, and they likely hadn’t fared as well as this woman had. 

Nathaniel said a quick, silent prayer for the potential dead, then turned back towards the nearby cavern. One Warden lived, at least, and he intended to do what he could to see that she stayed that way.


	2. Chapter 2

Being a Warden had taught Bethany to wake very quickly - in the Deep Roads, there was a pretty decent chance that whatever woke you wanted to bury a sword in your gut, so you had to be prepared to defend yourself the minute your blurry eyes cleared. So when consciousness came back, her eyes snapped open and her hand reached for her staff … which wasn’t anywhere within reach.

It only took her a moment to remember. Possibly because it only took a moment - and a brief turn of her head - to discover the giant contusion on the side of her head, which seemed to house some tiny person throwing daggers at the inside of her skull. The cave-in - they’d been caught in a cave-in, and everyone was … 

When Bethany stilled and let herself concentrate, she heard voices murmuring close by. For a moment, she breathed a sigh of relief. But as she laid and listened to the voices, she realized they were unfamiliar to her. It sounded like two men and a woman, instead of the other way around, and both men had deeper voices than Bos. 

She was obviously still in the Deep Roads, but someone had laid her out on a bedroll and removed her armored tunic, leaving her clad only in the black under-armor that covered her from head to toe. When she raised her head to look around, she couldn’t see any landmarks that she recognized. Her rescuers had clearly moved her to someplace she’d never been; easy to do, she admitted to herself, given how little time she’d spent in this portion of the Deep Roads. There were two other unoccupied bedrolls next to her; her faint hope that she hadn’t been the only person rescued died, leaving an ashy taste in her mouth. Everyone else was gone. 

Bethany tried to sit up; the knife-thrower in her head protested wildly, and she groaned before she could think better of it. “Hey!” one of the male voices said. “She’s awake.”

“What was your first clue?” the female voice asked. 

An attempt to push herself up to a full sitting position caused enough pain that her vision began to gray. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her back, supporting her when she nearly collapsed back to the hard cavern floor. “You’re okay,” the man said, “Just take it slow.”

When the worst of the pain had passed, Bethany blinked to clear her vision. The man crouching next to her had long, dark hair and a hooked nose; he wore Warden blues, which allowed her to let out a small breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Of course they were Wardens. Who else would be down here? “Thanks,” she said, the word coming out as a croak.

He helped her slide around until she could rest her back against a large rock formation next to the bedroll. “It seemed like you hit your head pretty hard. We weren’t sure you’d wake up.”

Bethany coughed. “Did anyone else make it?” She knew the answer to the question, but it was probably best to hear the confirmation.

He shook his head. “We found you at the edge of the cave-in. We didn’t see any signs of anyone else. I’m sorry.”

“Me too.” She sighed. “I was almost clear, I remember that much. I think I got pushed by a falling boulder, probably hit my head on the wall when I was trying to avoid it.”

Someone else approached - a dwarf, barely taller than her companion even when he was sitting on the ground. Tattoos covered her face, and she carried a waterskin, which she held out to Bethany when she was within arm’s reach. “Here. You must be parched.”

Bethany grabbed the skin and emptied half of the water before she took another breath. “Thanks.”

“What’s your name?” the dwarf asked.

“Bethany.” 

“I’m Sigrun. This,” she added, when her companion didn’t speak up right away, “is Nathaniel. We’re from Amaranthine.”

That made sense, given that they were likely somewhere underneath Ferelden. “We’re - I’m,” she corrected, wincing, “based in Ansburg, though I’ve been in Orlais for a while. We were exploring a Deep Roads entrance someone recently discovered in the Dales. It led to a walled-off corner of Caridin’s Cross. We managed to clear the rubble out of a new passage, but apparently the caverns around it weren’t very stable.” She rubbed her head. “Are we still near Caridin’s Cross?”

Nathaniel nodded. “Closer to Aeducan Thaig, but close to where we found you. We camped in one of the smaller caverns. It didn’t seem like a good idea to move you very far.”

“Thanks,” she said again. 

There was a commotion somewhere beyond them, on the other side of the cavern. “Hey,” the third voice called, “anyone want nug for dinner?”

Nathaniel made a face. “Not when we have perfectly good rations.”

“Well, if there are four of us, those rations are going to run out a lot sooner.” The speaker appeared in Bethany’s sight - another dwarf, with red hair, a beard, and a sword nearly as tall as he was strapped to his back. 

“Oghren,” Nathaniel said, rubbing his temple.

“What?” Oghren shrugged. 

“I won’t take your rations,” Bethany said. “We’re fairly close to Orzammar, aren’t we? Once I’m on my feet again, I can travel there myself.”

“It’s at least a three day trip back to Orzammar,” Sigrun said, “and that’s if you’re moving at a pretty decent pace. Which I don’t think you’ll be doing very soon, not by yourself.”

“But,” Nathaniel said, looking sideways at the dwarves, “I’m also not sure she wants to come with us.”

“Where are you going?”

All three looked at each other. “It’s a long story,” Sigrun said. “Come on, let’s get you some food before we tell it.”

It took her a few minutes to convince her legs to let her stand, but Bethany managed to move over to the fire and take a seat. She accepted some broth and a small portion of the nug Oghren roasted. “It’s at least as good as some of the things I used to eat at home,” she said, when Nathaniel looked at her, thinking of the mystery meats she and her sister ate at the Hanged Man. “I actually know what this is, which is a plus.”

“So shut your trap, Howe,” Oghren said, pointing a knife at Nathaniel. “Not everyone grew up on fancy noble food.”

“Weren’t you basically a noble?”

“Shows what you know about caste politics.” 

“Will you two shut up?” Sigrun rolled her eyes at Bethany. “Where are you from?”

“Kirkwall. Or,” she corrected, “Lothering, actually, but Kirkwall more recently.”

“Refugee?” Nathaniel guessed. When she nodded, so did he. “I spent some time in Kirkwall, when I was a squire. It’s … an interesting place.”

“That’s one way to put it.” Bethany sighed, spooning more broth into her mouth. “But I’ve been a Warden for a few years now, haven’t been back to Kirkwall in a long time.”

A Warden, in Ansburg, with Char and Varina and Bos, who hadn’t been her very best friends, but they’d been people she trusted at her back. People she’d known, who were gone now. Like everyone else, it seemed. Bethany sighed and closed her eyes. She was almost getting used to losing everyone.

There was a moment of awkward silence. When Bethany opened her eyes again, everyone seemed to be deliberately avoiding her eyes. She wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or offended. “So,” she said, clearing her throat. “Where are you heading?”

Nathaniel and Sigrun both looked at Oghren. Oghren looked back, then cursed creatively. “Okay,” he said. “I guess it is my story, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” both of his companions said.

“Well.” He grabbed his tankard of ale and downed a large gulp. “You know about the Anvil of the Void?”

“Yes …” Bethany said slowly. She knew the stories, anyway. A legendary place hidden inside the Deep Roads, where an old dwarven paragon had once discovered the secret to creating golems. More recent stories said that the Hero of Ferelden had visited the Anvil on his journeys during the blight, coming out with an army of golems that helped defeat the darkspawn during the final battle at Denerim. She’d heard most of the stories from Varric, though, so she took everything she knew with an entire shaker of salt. The Wardens were remarkably tight-lipped about whatever the Hero had done during the Blight, at least in Bethany’s hearing. She knew more about the Blight through Varric than through any Warden training. 

But thinking about Varric’s stories jogged her memory, made her remember why the name Oghren had seemed so familiar. “Are you one of the ones who traveled with the Hero?” she blurted.

“Yep.” Oghren straightened his shoulders. “Sure was. And yeah, we went to the Anvil of the Void, like all the tales say. But there’s a dwarf there running the thing, making all the golems.”

“Branka, the Paragon?”

“Yeah. Crazy bitch.” When Bethany raised an eyebrow, he shrugged. “I get to say it. She’s my blighted ex-wife.”

“Oh.” Bethany blinked. “Really?”

“Yeah, really. Lucky me.” Oghren sighed. "The whole thing is a long, stupid story. King Bhelen is nearly as crazy as Branka is, and the two of them can't figure out how to be reasonable people for two seconds without help."

When Bethany frowned, Nathaniel rolled his eyes and took over. "King Bhelen and Branka had an arrangement - she created golems for Orzammar, he sent her the ... supplies she needed to do so. But she's decided to change the arrangement without the King's approval, which went over just about as well as you might imagine. She's turned away every emissary he's sent -"

"Which means," Sigrun interrupted, "he's sent armies, and Branka's golems have likely killed them all."

"So," Nathaniel continued, "He asked Oghren to go talk to her."

"She hasn't listened to me since we were married. Blast it," Oghren grumbled, "she didn't even listen to me then. Why does anyone think she'll listen to me now?"

"Why did you agree to go," Bethany asked, "if you don't think you can do any good?"

"I didn't. The Wardens did. They apparently care more about keeping Bhelen happy than any actual truth in the matter."

Bethany nodded. She'd seen enough of Warden politics to believe that. "So you're going to the Anvil of the Void."

"Which isn't going to be an easy journey," Nathaniel said. 

No, it wouldn’t. Her dream of seeing the sunlight within the week faded from sight. "It doesn't seem like I have much choice, do I? I could try to get back to Orzammar by myself, but I'm not dumb enough to think I can fight off darkspawn and spiders and such by myself for three days or more. And you clearly can't interrupt your mission for six extra days."

Nathaniel looked like he was about to say something, but Sigrun shot him a look and spoke instead. "No, we really can't."

"So, I'll come with you." The idea filled her with more than a bit of dread - the journey to the Anvil was something that even Wardens talked about in hushed whispers. Some had tried to follow in the Hero's footsteps after the Blight, but no one had made it as far as the Anvil, and very few had even returned. But, if her choices were being alone in the Deep Roads or traveling farther in with a group of other Wardens ... well, as she'd said, she wasn't stupid. "I have plenty of combat skills, and I know a bit of healing magic, so I should be able to make myself useful. Speaking of which ..." Bethany suddenly looked down at her hand, flexing her fingers. "Where's my staff?"

"We didn't find one," Nathaniel said. "You're a mage?"

Bethany nodded, sighing. His eyes had narrowed - was that suspicion, or simply surprise she saw in his eyes? She couldn’t tell the difference any more. The dwarves, thankfully, didn't bat an eyelash. "We barely found you, quite frankly," Sigrun said. "I think everything you had with you must be buried in the rubble."

"Damn." Bethany tried to ignore the bubble of panic that welled up in her chest. The prospect of weeks in the Deep Roads was bad enough, without having to worry about casting spells without her staff. Even down here, the Fade was just a breath away, with all the danger and temptation it brought. To cast spells by hand meant reaching into that danger, letting it dance across her skin, allowing it a taste of everything she was ...

Bethany's head began to pound - from the injury or from worry, she couldn't tell. "I should probably lie down again," she said. "A little more rest, maybe, and then I'll be good to move."

"We haven't slept in a while either," Oghren said. "You think you'll be up to taking last watch?"

She nodded, ignoring the panic that fluttered inside her stomach. "I can do that." She could still do magic, even without her staff. And she was strong enough to deal with the side effects. She'd done it before. She could do it again.


End file.
